Shrines

Lotus flower shrine detail

Lotus shrine

The eggshell glaze give definition to the carved flower.  Can be hung form attached loop on back.

Crow shrine

Snowflake glazed flowers to shrines

Started making shrines about the same time I was testing John Britt's snowflake crackle glazes.  So it was inevitible that they would come together.

Flower three shrine

Flower three shrine detail

The orange tint  and yellow pollen come from Mayco stroke and coat glaze, as well as the shiney brown and black parts of the shrine.  The matt brown base is just red iron oxide wash.

Flower three shrine

Flower four snowflake glaze trials

Snowflake flower four

Base glazed with matt bronze green and Mayco stroke and coat, with some of the snowflake glaze coming down onto it.

Flower four detail

Why the base leaves for the flowers, you may ask?  Well, I wanted to dip the flowers, and then have them sit on something appropriate, thus the bases, which were not attached until the glaze firing, including on the shrine flower.

More shrines tomorrow!

Snowflake glazes

Several months ago John Britt wrote an article for Ceramics Monthly on Snowflake crystal glazes.

Flower one

So I decided to test some snowflake glazes, cone 6 on brownstone or speckled brownstone clays.  I was delighted with the 8th and 9th versions of his recipes.

The larger batch however wasn't quite as full of crystals and snowflakes.  But I kind of like it as a crazy crazed glaze.  I'm scratching my head about why the test glaze (batch of 100 grams) was gorgeous, then the larger batch (2000 grams) was disappointing.  It still seems to work best with a very heavy glaze covering, but no snowflakes to speak of.

I've got a few pics here, and will post some more tomorrow, as I move into my shrines which I've been assembling.

Flower one detail

Flower two

The leaves of the base are glazed with Matt Bronze Green.

Flower two

Flower two detail

Jomon Pottery from older blog site

 Yesterday I misspoke, thinking I'd included Jomon potters with the March posts last year on my old blog.  But they were before that, in Feb. actually!

This link takes you to some fabulous pictures of ancient pottery, made probably by women.
http://alchemyofclay.blogspot.com/2011/02/jomon-potter-women.html

Look at the rope designs, and remember this was back around 10,000 bc to maybe 300 ad...  And the people. And the forms.

http://www.earlywomenmasters.net/masters/jomon/index.html

It takes my breath away, thinking of these women firing these pots, using them for what purpose, and having constructed them between tending children, homes, chores, animals, crops...etc.

more info will be here

http://www.e-yakimono.net/html/jcn-11.html#tour


Let me know if you have any more information on these wonderful potters!

Remembering Haniwa house

I was struck by this little house, made of terra cotta, which an ancient Japanese culture used with their burial customs (before Buddhism and cremation).

 

I made a smaller, simpler version, but enjoyed the style of the two truncated pyramids forming a structure that might be a living space.

I didn't make all the openings keyhole shape, the way the picture in the book did.

And I just googled Haniwa, so I wouldn't be entirely ignorant about the meaning.  So there are more pictures, which I'll post below.

Photocopy from a book on Japanese Art History..

Architecture, Prehistoric period ( -552)

Terra cotta, Plan: 60x65 cm.  Height: 53 cm.  Excavated from an ancient burial mound at Saitobaru, Koyu-gun, Miyazaki Prefecture.  Owner, Tokyo National Museum.

(Note: I looked up metric conversion, since I don't keep it in my head.  50 cm is 20 inches)

Here are images from Google:

A different view (and in color) of my first image that inspired me.  All those roof structures are fabulous, and this was originally created in terra cotta, that's clay.  Just the same stuff I made mine from but not fired as hot.

 A garden, which has yet another Haniwa house.  Did I mention the burial mound had many figures and cylinders around it?

The pottery of the Jamon period of ancient Japan is different than these forms.  (look at my blog last March for Jamon pottery)  But I never saw any houses when I was studying Jamon pots!

My note to myself is that I've been working on shrines.  What else would you call a small building at a burial mound?

Variations on a theme

These plates are part of the barrage that I created when a friend asked for some more like I sold her last year.

The glaze combo is Mexico and Eggshell, sponged upon a white cone 6 clay body.  Some are different clays.  Some are just different.

As you can see, the glaze varies drastically, depending upon...what?  A whim of the kiln goddess?  A variation in glaze application?  A different clay body?  The time of the month?


I'm going with estrogen.  Since I'm a crone, I can blame about anything on it, and nobody knows what I'm talking about.  Basically, I crave chocolate all the time, and never need to worry about whether the moon is entering one phase or another.

I was glad after all my attempts to make 4 plates with the same glaze, my friend bought four that weren't entirely matching.  I neglected to ask why those were the choices.  I only know they do like "luncheon size" for their taste.  It's hard sometimes to make smaller, don't 'cha know?

Roving Toad Caravan

This slab built clay sculpture (cone 6 brownstone) has burnt umber ink stain and acrylic finish.

  I get such a kick looking at the combination of drawing style, the pen and ink touches in windows and edges of doors, combined with the softly fluid clay shapes of the tires and bumpers.

And that Chevy green and white was the color of my actual Open Road conversion van, which I owned from around 70 or 71 to 82 or 82.  I'm never sure of the dates, and I think it was at least 11 years before I let the engine block freeze in Gainesville.  I hadn't ever put antifreeze in it, since I lived in FL.  But for the Christmas break I didn't drive anywhere and there were a few days below freezing straight through.  So I had to say goodbye to a good old friend.

My sons and I went camping in the Roving Toad one summer, as I quit my job and lived on credit cards for 3 months.  We put 10,000 miles on the vehicle, had to buy new tires, and maybe a few other problems needed attention.  But mainly we enjoyed living outdoors and travelling.

Did I mention, having driven this vehicle for 11-13 years, it wasn't air conditioned?  And I lived in FL the whole time.  Since it had good window screens, it was bearable most nights to sleep in.  On the road it was ok to have windows open as long as you weren't stuck in traffic.  Yes, I did drive it to work as well, for many years in Tampa, then Tallahassee, then eventually it was mainly parked in Gainesville when I returned to college.

OK, that is way too much information, isn't it?  But this little van will never be sold, unlike the original. 

I have oodles of fond memories of my life, my family and my friends in that van!

Who do you make your art for, others or yourself?  This time I made it entirely for myself!

Shrines and things

I'm currently looking at crows, cause a friend is a "crow totem" person.  I made a bird, which ended up looking like a seagull.  Oops.  That will never do.  So tonight I've got some work to do.

So the shrines and things in the works include a few flowers sitting on leafy stands.  They will be used for the snowflake crystal glaze that I glommed onto from John Britt in Ceramics Monthly.  I tested 9 different versions last week, and only 2 look worth making into dipping glazes.  The tests were poured on the inside of little bowls, and brushed on the outside.  Brushing doesn't work for these glazes, and many of the poured ones didn't either, giving "brain coral" effects.  But two of them are gorgeous drop dead snowflake crystals, cone 6 electric kiln.

The shrines started with the secret room (see my postings of same name).  And then I spent a while doing some vehicles (a camper van and a gypsy Vardo).  But I've also done some interesting shapes with little spaces and nature type images.

I am letting Tracy Bloom do the barns, which she does so well.

And Linda Starr has some great shrines from FL.  I doubt that we'll run into the same market, but mine don't look like hers anyway

So I keep working, and sometimes being too bored to work, and then coming back.  As my Art Biz blog coach says, just go into the studio.  Just do it.

Sacred to one is profane to another

Along with Asheville's wicked ways, has come this controversy about religion bumping into public schools.  As I've discussed this a bit with some friends, I've also run into a new sense that I find somewhat frightening.

It isn't just that there are people in my county who believe anyone who doesn't worship the way they do will have eternal damnation. I have very few friends who are intolerant of other's beliefs.  Most of my friends believe in freedom of religion.  I forgot for a while that those others are running around with their heads in some kind of buckets that keep them from even seeing that other very good people, people who lead exemplary lives, don't believe the same way they do.

Am I now going to look at fundamentalist Christians much the way I look at extremist Muslims?  Bucket-heads.  They don't see the forest for their own myopic trees that have limited viewpoints.

The thing that most bothers me about this is that the rest of us now have to live in fear that anyone we talk with might be a closet (are there any other kind?) KKK member.  Just like they might be Taliban conspirators.

Please!  That is said with a whine of self pity.  I don't want to look at my contacts with my neighbors with fear and mistrust.  And I don't want to limit my own vocalizations that allow tolerance of other's beliefs to be clear and present at all times.  I'm proud to be who I am and have the opportunity to learn about the beliefs of other people.  Apparently that is a rare attitude these days.

I'm hoping this atmosphere of intolerance is a political byproduct of the primary election in nearby South Carolina where the hotbed of fundamentalism is trying to elect a person today that does represent their viewpoints to run for President.  And then maybe we can get back to being respective of other people's religions.  Until then, I have friends who reside here on the belt buckle of the Bible Belt who have stopped speaking their truths in public for fear of death threats.

Yes, a pagan woman received a death threat a couple of days ago for having insisted upon the separation of church and state in our Buncombe County public schools.  Look at the Citizen-Times of Asheville for details.  Or check out what Byron Ballard has to say at The Village Witch blog.

This reeks of pre-Natzism.  I can't believe it is happening right here to people I know.  They are afraid to stand up and share with others that they aren't among a minority (yes I do think the hate-oriented fundamentalists are a small bunch of crazed silly sports fans).  Unfortunately, the more of us, whether Christians, Jews, Atheists or Wiccans...the more that we become silent about this threat, the more we allow an atmosphere of fear.  And that atmosphere will allow the minority of extremist thinking to grow into a delusion that they actually do have the right to impose their wills upon the rest of us.

The Constitution was pretty well written, and has laws written and upheld to protect the great idea that no one religion will have power in the governance of the people.  Now the city, county and state officials are being called upon to enforce these laws.  But the common experience must move out of fear based atmosphere.  We need to remember that Jesus (as well as lots of other wise prophets) preached to love one another, not to scare each other.

Secret Room again

 

A few more views of the Secret Room.

 Here's the back wall, somewhat abstract and decorative outside, but inside...

 a couple of trunks of trees and branch-like shapes that have the light coming through them...

I think it will be dry enough to bisque next week.  Fingers crossed that the roof doesn't cave in!!  Sort of like trial by fire.

A sanctuary?

 

A work in progress, which has more steps to completion.  But I wanted to share the ideas a bit.  So here's the bird on nest of three eggs, as part of my secret room sanctuary.  For me it means the same kind of sanctuary that is a refuge from all fears, a safe and secure place.  

The many windows were never planned to be the many shapes, that just happened as I went along.  Originally just rectangular windows were going to have different aspects of Goddesses looking out.  Guess that idea will have to be on another secret room.

Secret Room

Just one view, as it still has lots of drying to do.

I just played with the dynamic view version of the blogger template.  Doesn't work for my needs.  Enjoy it if you try it, you bloggers out there.

Criticism vs. appreciation

No artist needs criticism, only honest appreciation.  If he needs criticism, he is no artist. Gertrude Stein.

What do you think of this quote?

It reminds me how hyper-defensive I am from having grown up with a critical parent, who of course made me feel lots of shame; thus I become defensive very easily when I'm not aware of it.

I think self criticism is probably the only kind I can ever hear these days.  However, I also know the minute someone is less than honest in giving positive feedback.

Appreciation must be genuine to be of any value.  If you don't like what I'm doing, shut up!

No, I take that back.  I do like your opinions.  If I didn't ever hear anything but my own view point, I'd be terribly (more than I already am) narcissistic.   I just need to hear that you think something from your viewpoint...ie, making an "I statement" rather than, "you did a bad job of that."  You know what I mean.

Cornucopia remembered

I just changed the header photo, to that of my first Cornucopia.  I think I sold it in 2010.  Glad I got a shot of it as I was closing up from that Holly Jolly.

So in case you're missing the one you've been looking at all these months, here's the 2011 version.  It is still in the gallery at Black Mountain Center for the Arts, for a couple more weeks.

 

This mask of a fantasy hummingbird was in the student/teacher display last year.

What are my plans for 2012?  In case you haven't noticed, I'm trying to be less anal, less controlling, and let the goddess/fates/winds take me wherever my next footstep may lead.  I do have a sketchbook out again, and am making lots of notes, things that I might explore soon.

If I were still compulsive I might jump on the idea that struck me today when looking at an article in Ceramics Monthly.  Someone said he was making a mug a day for 30 days.  I thought, I could do a goddess a day for 30 days.

I could.  But will I?  Only as long as it's spontaneous!  HA!

review 2011, hello 2012